"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

MORE FUN QUOTES FROM ST. PETER DAMIAN: "THEY WILL WHRIL IN A TORRENT OF TAR AND SULFUR."

Damian to Pope Nicholas II in 1059:

“What worse thing can one do than to spare lustful bishops when he has the power to correct them?”

He denounces the practice of covering up scandals among the clergy and warns the pontiff of divine punishment should he fail to carry out his duty in such matters:

"Clearly, just as those who punish faults are worthy of blessing, so those who coddle sinners are subject to a curse, as the prophet says: 'Cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood.' (Jer. 49:10) Indeed, he who withholds his sword from blood is he who restrains himself from imposing the punishment of a proper sentence against evildoers. 'Those who fail to correct are themselves guilty of the act.' If, therefore, Eli, only because of two sons whom he did not correct with a proper punishment, perished together with them and with such a great multitude of men, of what sentence do we think them to be worthy who preside in the palaces of the Church and in the seats of judgment, and who are silent in the face of the known offenses of depraved men?"

“Read, O father, the letter on the incontinence of the clergy that I sent to Pope Nicholas of pious memory, and whatever you might find written there on this topic, understand to be no less directed to you. Given that all of the holy Fathers, who established the canons by the Holy Spirit, without any dissent unanimously agree among themselves regarding the preservation of priestly chastity, what hope is there for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit by fulfilling carnal enticements in their own flesh? Indeed, through the transience of momentary lust, they purchase the inextinguishable fire of eternal combustion.Now they soil themselves with the foulness of pleasure, later, turned over to vengeful flames, they will whirl in a torrent of tar and sulfur."